The present invention relates to an artificial pancreas, and more particularly to an artificial pancreas having the function of measuring blood sugar values (blood glucose concentrations) of the living body and injecting blood sugar control agents into the living body in accordance with the measurements.
Blood sugar control agents include hypoglycemic agents and hyperglycemic agents. Examples of hypoglycemic agents are insulin, etc., while exemplary of hyperglycemic agents are glucagon, glucose, etc.
Such artificial pancreas heretofore known include those of the so-called bedside type which comprise a blood sugar determination unit for measuring the blood sugar of the living body, an injection unit having an insulin container, a glucagon container, an insulin feed pump and a glucagon feed pump for injecting insulin or glucagon into the living body, an arithmetic control unit for calculating the dose of insulin or glucagon based on the measurement and controlling the pump concerned of the injection unit in accordance with the result of calculation, and a case housing these units. However, the conventional artificial pancreas of the bedside type has the drawback of being large-sized and limited to bedside use because the blood sugar measuring electrodes (sensor) of the blood sugar determination unit, the feed pumps of the injection unit and the arithmetic control unit are relatively large. Further because the blood sugar determination unit is adapted to determine blood sugar with use of blood collected from the patient and diluted, the collection of blood heavily burdens the patient, so that it is impossible to use the device continually for a long period of time.